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🧠 DEEP DIVE USE CASE
How to Troubleshoot Unhealthy Kubernetes DaemonSets
Many DevOps engineers ask this all the time. Deployments create Pods. DaemonSets also create Pods. So what is really different here?
If both spin up containers inside the cluster, why not just use one instead of the other when something starts going wrong?
When you create a Deployment, you define a Pod template and how many replicas you want running.
The Deployment creates a ReplicaSet, and that ReplicaSet makes sure the total number of Pods you asked for is always maintained. If one Pod dies, another is created. If a node disappears, the Pods are rescheduled elsewhere.
The important part here is this. A Deployment thinks in terms of total replica count across the cluster. It ensures the number stays consistent, but it does not guarantee how those Pods are distributed across nodes.
What is Kubernetes DaemonSet?
A Kubernetes DaemonSet is a workload controller that ensures a specific Pod runs on every eligible node in a cluster.
Instead of asking for a replica count like a Deployment, you only define the Pod template. Kubernetes then automatically runs exactly one copy of that Pod on each node that matches the criteria.
If a new node is added, the DaemonSet creates a Pod on it. If a node is removed, the corresponding Pod disappears with it.
The focus here is not total replicas across the cluster. The focus is one Pod per node.
Now put both mental models side by side.
With a Deployment, you control a number. Three replicas means three Pods somewhere in the cluster. Kubernetes does not care which node runs them, only that the total count remains correct.
With a DaemonSet, you control coverage. Every eligible node must have one Pod. The number of Pods is therefore derived from the number of nodes.
In a Deployment:
A node can have zero Pods.
A node can have multiple Pods.
In a DaemonSet:
A node should never have zero Pods if it is eligible.
A node should never have more than one Pod from that DaemonSet.
When a Deployment is unhealthy, you usually think in terms of missing replicas.
When a DaemonSet is unhealthy, you think in terms of missing nodes, extra Pods, or Pods that are not aligned one-to-one with nodes.
With this basic understanding of how Deployments and DaemonSets behave, let us now look behind the scenes at how the DaemonSet controller works and how to troubleshoot unhealthy DaemonSets.
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